Saturday, October 13, 2012

Mad Analysis: Our Hypocritical Vice President


In the recent Vice Presidential debate, the moderator pointed out the historic nature of two Roman Catholics running for VP in the United States and followed this up by asking each of the candidates how their Catholic faith influences them on the issue of abortion. Congressman Paul Ryan, as most know, is pro-Life and opposes abortion while Vice President Joe Biden is pro-Choice and supports abortion being legal and readily available. Congressman Ryan said that he finds it impossible to separate your faith and your private life from your public life and that he believes abortion to be wrong both because his Church teaches that it is wrong but also because of, as he said, science and reason tell him life begins at conception and thus abortion is the taking of an innocent life. Joe Biden, on the other hand, answered that he believes you most certainly can separate your faith and private life from your public life. Biden said that he is a faithful, practicing Catholic and that he accepts the teaching of his Church that life begins at conception but that he still supports the legality of abortion because to do otherwise would be to impose his private religious views on the public at large. This, it should also be said, is the standard answer given by most Catholics in the Democratic Party which has in its platform the official position that abortion should be legal at all times, in all instances, for all people.

There is, however, a glaring, blatant problem with the position of Joe Biden and those like him. The problem is; why do these same Catholic politicians have no problem imposing their own moral views on the public at large on issues other than abortion? For example, Biden and many other Catholic Democrats have said over and over again that their support for a social safety net, for welfare programs, for higher taxes on the wealthy to support such programs aimed at benefiting the less fortunate all stem from their Catholic faith which teaches them to help the poor. So, why do they have no problem forcing, for example, certain people to pay more to the government to help the poor because of their faith but that they do have a problem with forcing people to either raise or give up for adoption a child they conceived? If a rich atheist does not believe in the morality of helping the poor, why does Biden force his Catholic belief in that regard on the wealthy atheist but he will not force his Catholic belief in the sanctity of life on an expectant mother? I presume that Biden also believes it is wrong to steal. The Church says it is wrong. So, why does he not call for the repeal of all laws against theft so as not to impose his view on the immorality of thievery on those people who may be communists or something, rejecting the very concept of ownership, who see nothing wrong with stealing?

Obviously, this is a position that makes no sense whatsoever. As some have also pointed out, the Obama-Biden administration obviously has no problem forcing religious institutions to cover artificial birth control in their healthcare plans even though Catholic institutions believe that the use of artificial birth control is immoral. In regards to the HHS mandate, Biden is supporting the use of government force to compel institutions to do something their faith and the faith he himself claims to hold says is wrong and immoral. The truth is, of course, that any government in existence passes laws and those laws apply to everyone, even those who may disagree with them. Democracy is no different, hence we have such terms as the “tyranny of the majority”. In the old days, the United States was somewhat limited in this regard because the country was a union of sovereign or at least semi-sovereign states. Many pro-Life Americans who see little hope in the complete criminalization of abortion or those who simply believe in the principle of states’ rights do not want the federal government to make abortion illegal across the whole country but simply wish that power to be returned to the states so that each state could decide for itself whether to permit abortion within its borders or not. Biden, and the rest of the pro-Choice Democrats, do not support this view. They want abortion to be legal in every state whether the people in each of the states like it or not. In other words, they support forcing their view on the goodness of abortion on those who believe it is wrong.

The same view holds true on a number of other issues as well. Congressman Ryan, made a limited statement in this direction during that very exchange, saying that the Romney-Ryan administration would prefer that the people decide on whether they want abortion to be legal or illegal rather than an unelected judge. This, of course, referred to the Democrats getting laws in individual states and across the whole country overturned by state supreme courts or the federal Supreme Court to legalize numerous things, including abortion. Finally, it is also evident that Biden is holding to a very blatant double-standard, as are those like him, because of their voting record. After all, if he truly believed abortion was wrong but did not wish to impose his views on others, he and those like him could simply abstain from voting on any legislation involving abortion. Personally, I would still think them cowardly for doing so, but that would allow their actions to match their words. President Obama voted “present” often enough in his brief career in the state and national legislatures. However, they do not. They vote in favor of abortion, not “no” and not “present” but a very clear and unequivocal “yes” to abortion. So, in effect, what Biden is saying is that he will not vote to impose a belief he holds on others but he will vote to impose a belief he claims NOT to hold on others.

Does that make sense to absolutely anyone? Can absolutely anyone say that is a clear and consistent position to hold? I think not. However, I am obviously not so morally developed as the Vice President as I could never believe that something is intrinsically evil and still cast a vote that would allow it to be carried out. So what do I know?

8 comments:

  1. You are right on the money here. It is no secret that Biden and most democrat Catholics have no problem with abortion. They just don’t like to admit it.

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  2. (sigh) Another reminder: I will not post comments that contain lots of shouting, which are unrelated to the topic at hand or which clearly show the poster has not actually read the article above.

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  3. Were you referring to my comment?

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    1. No...it was on point and there was no repeated SHOUTING in it. Otherwise it wouldn't have been posted. I was referring to two others which, obviously, were not posted.

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  4. I agree there are many inconsistencies in Joe Biden's argument. But between the 2 sides of politics there are many double standards and hypocrisy. I don't like it but someone's gotta say something about it. There is those who are right wing who are pro-life and are denounced as forcing their view on others while left wing individuals have no qualm about forcing their views on others, such as people believing that evolution should be a forced view and that creationism prevents intellectual progress, churches should be forced to perform gay marriage even if the church personally doesn't agree and this not hypocritical. Apparently it's common sense.

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  5. We are forgetting that there are two types of Christians—denomination is irrelevant—and those two types are conservative and liberal. Obviously, Mr. Biden is a liberal, heretical Christian. I label Mr. Ryan a liberal, heretical Christian as well. Why? Mr. Ryan made the comment that abortion is wrong EXCEPT life of mother, incest, and rape. First, life of mother is so rare in our modern age and modern medical practice, thus the argument does not hold water. There are estimated statistics regarding the life of mother and they are so minuscule that it is laughable. I can see the validity of the "life of mother" argument IF we were living in ancient times. Second, incest is wrong and I think we all would agree. Historically, the Lord our God permitted incest to populate the world—it is only logical. Once the world became populated to God's taste, He barred incest. There are estimated statistics regarding incest occurrences and they, too, are so tiny that it is laughable. Finally, rape is wrong and I think we all would agree. There are estimated statistics regarding rape and they, unfortunately, are very high compared to the previously mentioned.

    Regardless of the incident (i.e. life of mother, incest, or rape), once the sperm fertilizes the egg life begins, period. Murder is murder—period. Why does mankind accept murder for the unborn? Yet, murder of the born (infant, child, adolescent, or adult) is condemned? Murder is murder and God sees no exceptions when He commands, "You shall not MURDER." Now, it is true that God makes an exception to murder concerning self-defense, but only with just cause (that is another discussion). The so-called "legitimate" cases for abortion are not justifiable and they are based on emotion and irrationality.

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    1. Actually, Ryan never said such a thing. He said the Romney campaign's official position was for abortion to be available only in cases of rape, incest or life of the mother (which is actually pretty much the law in those Catholic countries everyone regards as having "outlawed" abortion). He never said that was his view, he's only the VP candidate and doesn't make all the decisions -Romney does (and he used to be pro-choice; twice actually).

      As for God being against the taking of any life except in self- defense, well, have you ever read why God hot mad at King Saul? Personally, I like the "smite them and utterly destroy them" and the "eye for an eye Almighty". But then I suppose I never really believed those who claimed to see a difference between infanticide and the execution of a criminal.

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    2. And the above comment is why I have to learn to stop commenting via iphone -I'm no good at it. Sorry for all the mistakes.

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